Query Scorecard

Good morning, my peeps. Hope you all had a successful week of writing.

Just a quick update on how the query process has been going for me. First, I must pass along props to my writing friend Donna who graciously took it upon herself to rewrite my query letter and WOW! She did a great job. Really. Made me see the error of my ways. I immediately rewrote ALL of my queries – to management firms and production companies – based on her style/method. The results were impressive.

Normally, when you send out cold queries you can expect a 2 – 3% response rate: 100 queries == 3 requests for your script. With Donna’s wonderful rewrite – and this only applies to production companies so far – I sent out 36 queries and received 3 requests for my script – something like 8%. Now, the thing to keep in mind is that these were same day requests – requests I sent out on Friday morning. Very cool. The true results will be known over the next two weeks as it sometimes takes that long for those busy folks in Hollywood to get around to answering your email. I have had requests come as much as four weeks after sending out the query. Go figure.

Ok, now for the scorecard for this week:

Production Companies:

• thirty-six (36) queries.
• Four (4) invalid email addresses.
• Three (3) requests for scripts.

Management Firms:

• sixty-two (62) queries.
• Four (4) invalid email addresses.
• To date no requests.

The thing to realize here — these queries were all sent on Friday, Lincoln ’s Birthday, a day most firms only worked a half day (Monday is a holiday, so they were all shooting for a long weekend) and it will be a week or two before I can harvest the fruit of my labors.

So, for this year – 2010 – I have sent out:

Production Companies:

• sixty-five (65) queries.
• Seven (7) bad email addresses.
• Eight (8) requests for scripts.
• Three (3) rejects.
• Five (5) still reading. Or, like I’ve said before, maybe a NO, but I will follow up.

Management Firms:

• one hundred-thirty (130) queries.
• Eight (8) bad email addresses.
• One NO THANKS.

Am I sensing a pattern here with these management types? I think what it boils down to is this: produces are ALWAYS looking for a good script to produce. Managers have more writers to manage than they know what to do with. Just have to keep plugging away. Remember the Three Ps?

Anyway, that’s pretty much a wrap for this week. Time to get back to work and to

Keep Writing!